Episode 32 - Return to Paris

"It is even funnier the second time!" -King Neptune

May 15, 2024

And so we are back!

It has been quite a while since I have done a full blog post like this, and I have to say, I am tremendously excited to see how it turns out. To see what connections I make. What stories I weave. And to create an immortal memorial of my magical week in Paris.

I cannot wait.

Any proper story should begin at the beginning, so we might as well start with the reason I flew across the entire world for a week in the middle of the spring quarter. Much to the surprise of my UCLA peers and to the concern of my mom, I decided to skip Week 4 at UCLA (and with it, a week of work and class) to visit my abroad friends in Paris.

Why?

Because I wanted to, and I could.

My Parisian friends are only there until summer before we all scatter back to our parts of the world. Free housing, free company, and everyone all together in Paris once more?

Please. The decision was easy.

So let’s adventure together as we see where we go in this blog post. Let’s begin!

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024

My flight to Paris was a direct flight from LAX (the bane of my existence) to Paris Orly on my beloved FrenchBee airline. Before I left, I 3D-printed some Rocktopi as gifts, headed to Target to buy red solo cups for some Parisian rage cage (more on that later), and then before I knew it, I was heading over to the airport in an Uber.

A smooth start!

The bag check at UCLA was uneventful, and the lady checking it in was Ukrainian, pronounced my name Slavically, and was quite funny. Once that was settled, I popped through TSA pre-check, which was painless as well.

Maybe LAX is not the bane of my existence, after all!

I then headed off to the Centurion Lounge, as I had about an hour to kill before boarding.

And let me tell you, after the printing press, the wheel, and the Internet, the Centurion Lounge is one of the greatest inventions of all time. Delicious, high-quality nutritious food, lightning-fast WiFi, kind staff, overall exceptional. They even brought me a sorbet to my desk, which was served in a literal dragon fruit.

It really doesn’t get any better than this. Thank you, Papa!

Got to the gate in time and hopped onto the plane, where I read some, watched a bit of Pirates of the Caribbean (At World’s End), and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, being 6’3” is not particularly conducive to sleeping well in the economy section of a plane, but you gotta take what you can get. I got a few hours of shut-eye and woke up in Paris.

I have to say, this past week has given me a great appreciation for the state of modern travel, and in particular, the airline industry. The fact that I can get in a metal cylinder, fall asleep, and wake up thousands of miles away is like magic to me. If I told someone 500 years ago that half a day ago I was on the other side of the planet, I would’ve been burned at the stake for heresy. Yet somehow, everyone got so used to this marvel of human engineering that we take it completely for granted. In the same way, people fought literal wars centuries ago over access to water sources.

And now, we shit in clean water. Wild.

The flight landed smoothly, customs were a breeze (and I collected another stamp in my passport), picked up my checked-in backpack, and headed out to the fresh air of France.

And immediately, a sea of cigarettes emerged from a dozen pockets, and soon the fresh air was filled with cigarette smoke. I forgot how bad the smoking situation was in Europe. I’ve missed many things about Europe back in America, but let me tell you, smoking was not one of them. I bet that when the airlines banned smoking in planes, it was the French flight attendants who were the most upset.

I headed over to the OrlyBus, feeling proud of myself for knowing the local transportation systems. The bus was packed like a can of sardines, and we were driving into Paris before I knew it. Sorry to the French gentleman beside me who had his armpit in my face that entire OrlyBus ride. I wished I could’ve moved it, but there was just no space.

Lol.

When I got off the OrlyBus in Paris, I felt this sheer happiness that I was not expecting at all. The beautiful Parisian buildings, the flowering green trees, were all just so beautiful. It was so strange to be back, like a snapshot in time back to a formal life when Paris was my home.

I hopped on a green vélib (how I’ve missed them!), and biked to Bon Marche to see Joe. I was supposed to see him later after I had dropped off my things at his apartment, but I just couldn’t wait. When I parked the vélib outside Bon Marche, I saw Joe walking with a tray in Rose Bakery, and it was just the greatest excitement ever.

I walked through the entrance, where the security guard did my bag check, but he gave up a quarter of the way through my backpacking backpack full of clothes and gifts. The trip could’ve totally been done with just a small backpack, but I have been trained by my family to bring gifts to those you’re visiting, so that backpack was packed full of UCLA merch and gear.

Go Bruins!

Finally, I walked up to Rose Bakery, and when Joe saw me, my heart was just so full and happy and all was right in the world, it was the greatest I have felt in a very, very long time. I was a bit nervous that not seeing him in so long would’ve created a rift between us, but when we started talking, it was as if I had left Paris only yesterday.

I love this man so so much.

Joe got a huge hug and received the first of 4 Rocktopi to be gifted this trip, and he was quite perplexed and excited by the creation. In return, I got a free cake and coffee (on the house, shoutout Rose Bakery), which was a delicious welcome to Paris.

After chilling there for a bit, I vélibed over to Joe’s apartment. And on that vélib ride, I experienced such true joy and bliss that I haven’t experienced in years, the kind you get when truly everything is perfect in the world. I couldn’t stop smiling at my return. Paris, wow! She is beautiful, and green, and gorgeous.

I dropped off my things at the apartment, where Gibs was waiting to greet me.

Gibbles! Gibs! She was there! The pride and joy of Sydney herself, back in Paris along with me. We chatted for a bit, and she tried on the first of several UCLA Club Sports jackets to be doled out.

After a couple of minutes there, I headed off again, this time further north, to Eliana’s apartment. I had tutored Eliana in English for several months when I lived in Paris, and her family had invited me to dinner now that I was back in town.

Eliana was ecstatic to see me, and I was super happy to see her. In just a few months, she had gotten noticeably taller! She also got glasses, and seems a lot smarter and way more mischievous in them.

What was strange was that when I greeted her mom, her stomach was no longer basketball-shaped. In all my excitement to come back to Paris, I had completely forgotten that the family was having another kid soon.

And have another kid, they did! Alicia, born February 2nd, Groundhog Day. I was so excited.

And there she was, lying in a crib, all tiny and cute. How exciting :)

I gave Eliana her presents, which were a UCLA hoodie (gotten start ‘em on the UCLA propaganda early), a UCLA teddy bear, and a paper airplane book with a bunch of different model designs (to continue her mischief at school and at home, of course).

When Eliana’s mom saw the teddy bear, she was super excited that I had gotten their other daughter a present, and said it was super thoughtful that I had remembered that they were having another kid.

I was extremely proud with how quickly I pivoted to that narrative: “Of course I brought it for Alicia…”

That definitely was not the reason I had brought the teddy bear, but you gotta improvise, adapt, overcome.

Eliana’s dad came over around 7, and we all sat around the table together for a delicious pasta dinner. Turns out, they just bought a new house in the southern suburbs of Paris, with significantly more room and a large garden! The crazy thing is, they told me that the house, which is at least 5 times the size of their Parisian apartment, is still cheaper than that apartment. Crazy stuff. They’re moving in after the Olympics over the summer, and invited me over anytime!

After dinner, I biked over to the 10th and met up with the gang for dinner. It was my first time seeing Lara, Emma, and Ben back, and it was just so so wonderful. They got tacos and asked me if I wanted to order some, which I thought was hilarious since I had literally come from LA that morning.

Flying from LA to Paris to eat tacos would be like flying from Paris to LA to order a croissant. Hilarious.

Not funny enough, however, to not finish the leftover tacos the group didn’t eat.

After, we headed off to a wine bar, where the wine was allegedly orange but to me, tasted like a rosé. We chatted about many a thing, and it was as if no time had passed at all.

After the wine, we popped over to a pub for pints.

Pints. The key to my heart. I had not had a proper pint in a pub in months, and it was lovely. I had a very deep political chat with Joe about the state of politics in America (especially considering the recent college campus protests), and I’ve just missed Joe so so much.

After the pints, I biked back with Ben to spend the night at his apartment. Joe’s landlord had a friend visiting for a few days, so I was doing a tour around the different Parisian apartments until Joe’s guest room freed up.

Night 1: Ben. The conversation was about the triathlon and cycling teams at UCLA and his wrapped birthday gift from his parents, which he guessed was a Lego Concorde model. This, of course, devolved into a discussion about the Concorde itself, which, of course, warranted a Wikipedia article read of the only Concorde crash in the 1980s at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Brilliant. Coming back to Paris was the greatest idea ever.

Wednesday, April 24th

Ben and I woke up around 7:30, him for work, me for studying. Unlike when I was in Paris before, this time around I actually have to study since I’m taking UCLA classes, which actually require studying. This is in stark contrast to the Sciences Po classes, where I probably studied a grand total of 30 hours all semester for all 5 of my classes.

Nice! I love study abroad!

We had lovely tea together (I don’t think I’ll ever find a British person drinking tea not funny), and Ben was offering me some of his Weetabix cereal, which I politely declined. I’m not nearly hungry enough to be eating Weetabix, especially considering there was a world-class boulangerie just around the corner. No thanks, Ben!

We chatted for a bit, then I quickly called Tatiana to hear about her crazy night out in Latvia. She was out there for a week for a Russian language exchange program, and what a night she had.

Ben and I headed downstairs, where we met up with Joe. We headed around the block, and just like that, we were back at Sciences Po! I connected to the WiFi automatically (wow Sciences Po remembers me), finished the call with Tatiana, and then Joe and I had breakfast. YUM

The funniest part about coming back to Sciences Po was seeing all the same people that were there fall semester, and just walking among them like nothing was different. Sometimes they’d recognize me, be very confused, and then I’d laugh maniacally. That’s what happened with Elise, my volleyball team, and it was hilarious!

After coffee in the cafeteria with Joe, we headed up to the library to do some work — me to do a computer science project, Joe to hit a 4000-word word count for an essay that he hadn’t started and was due very very soon. Instead of doing the CS project, I ended up just processing a lot of unread emails and responding to LinkedIn messages, which Joe thought was quite chucklesome. Ever since I started posting on LinkedIn for fun, both the number of connection requests and messages I’ve been getting have skyrocketed.

And I have to say that checking LinkedIn, with Joe writing his paper to my left, made me feel so content.

We worked for a few hours, then I headed off to girlie brunch (again!) with Gibs, Andrea, and Anna near Notre Dame. I walked along Boulevard de Saint-Germaine and saw a funny pig butcher shop. Vegetarians, beware.

What was interesting was that I was seeing a lot of shops I’d never seen before because I’d never actually walked the full length of that road before. I’ve biked it a million times, but never taken the time to look through all the windows. I guess it’s a reminder to take life slow sometimes.

Girlie brunch was a slay, and the girlies hadn’t changed one bit. We all got pancakes while Anna was telling me about her trip to Brazil (!) a few weeks prior, which made me think that my travel plans weren’t even that crazy at all. We headed over to some bookshops afterward, where we checked out some books (crazy), I got The Hunchback of Notre Dame stamped for my personal library back home, then we all went our separate ways for class, work, or museuming.

On the way back to Sciences Po, I popped by another bookshop, which was so stacked with books that it was barely navigable. Just like out of a storybook!

Walked back to Sciences Po in a tremendous mood, then continued “doing work” next to Joe in the library. We got lunch together at the boulangerie, headed over to the gift shop for me to try on a Sciences Po jacket (since my other one got stolen at the Grand Canyon [sad face]), got another coffee, then Joe went off to class and I was off to the library again.

Instead of doing my CS project, I ended up writing a scathing email to UCLA Dining for announcing that they’re reducing the value of a meal swipe (again), then decided to actually start doing my CS project.

I never ended up starting that project, and instead went over to the cafeteria to get coffee with Manon and Elise and catch up over the past few months. We all shared our dating updates, with me talking about Brooke, Manon talking about her basketball chap, and Elise sharing her tale, which had more twists and turns than the Col du Tourmalet. It was tremendous to see them all again!

Elise had to go study (Sciences Po finals were the week after), so Manon and I headed outside to chitchat in the sunshine about Paris, the political strife at Sciences Po the previous few months (that tends to happen when I leave places for some reason), and how happy she was to see me again! Based on the updates she was giving me about Sciences Po and France, it seemed that staying in Paris for just the fall semester was definitely the right move, as was the decision to come back and visit for a week. Manon is finishing up her last few classes this month, then going abroad to Santiago all of next year! I’ll need to go visit her there for sure.

I headed back to the library and tried to start doing some work, again to no avail. At this point, I think that this Sciences Po library is just not very conducive for me actually doing schoolwork.

So instead, I went on a nice evening walk in Paris toward the direction of the volleyball gym, calling my dad along the way. He loved my email to UCLA Dining, which had already been responded to. Basically, they said that the Daily Bruin article that reported the scandalous news was wrong, and they weren’t reducing the swipe value that quarter.

Considering this is my last quarter eating UCLA food (I move out of the dorms after this year), I don’t really care anymore since the problem isn’t affecting me after all. Hooray!

I hadn’t told any of my former teammates that I was coming back to Paris, so it was a surprise for them all when I walked into the gym, ready to play. And play, we did! It was the last practice of the season, so we starting off with some hectic futsal, then just played King of the Court for the rest of the evening.

I’ve forgotten how fun and exhilarating it is to play volleyball, and was super happy to find that I retained about 90% of my skills on the court despite not playing seriously since last December. I’m even planning on continuing playing back at UCLA, maybe even trying out for the club team next fall!

Great banter with everyone in the gym, and the coach was the best one in the entire gym. He played professionally as a libero for many years but didn’t really practice with us during the season, so seeing him tonight in his full glory was magnificent. Practice ended, and so began our post-practice tradition of going to the nearby bar for beer and pizza. I called Mama along the way, got a massive pie, caught up with some teammates, then headed home.

Day 2 of my grand tour of Parisian apartments: Emma! Funny enough, however, the apartment is actually my former one, since Emma moved in after I left in December.

That meant the bike ride back from practice was the same one it was all of last fall, and I was extraordinarily happy to see that I fully remembered the entire route. No phone was needed for navigation, and I was just vibing along the Seine on the way home. Emma made dinner and together we watched an episode of Baby Reindeer, this new show on Netflix.

It was amazing. I’ll need to finish it when I come back.

Thursday, April 25th

You could tell that someone new had moved into the apartment because my former apartment was a true bachelor pad with no decorations when I lived there. In this new-and-improved Emma version, there were fake plants, pictures on the wall, and even a tablecloth. You can tell that I didn’t live there anymore!

Emma was off to her wonderful consulting gig at 8 in the morning, and I groggily recall waking up and saying bye before heading back to sleep.

I somehow woke up at 1 pm (oh my), and proceeded to drink 3 delicious coffees from the amazing Nespresso machine in the world, which was one of the things I’ve missed the most about Paris. That tiny thing has been consistently making banger coffees since September 2023.

I read for a bit, helped Joe with his essay, wrote Emma a LinkedIn post, cleaned her (formerly my) filthy sink, and just overall chilled in my former spot. What a great time!

Eventually, I got my shit together and headed off into Paris, stopping at a boulangerie along the way (where I ordered in French with no hiccups). I went toward the Louvre, and the entire scene of walking through Paris was just straight out of a movie. Beautiful weather, birds chirping, sun shining, people walking and biking everywhere, it was just so lovely!

Along my walk, I stopped by the Carnival Museum to learn more about the history of Paris and got free entrance as a Sciences Po student (my ID was still valid for the entire year lol). Pretty cool to learn about the French Revolution and see Rue de Faubourg St. Antoine, my street in Paris, on Parisian maps from the 1700s.

After, I headed over to the Paris Picasso Museum, where I again got free entrance as a Sciences Po student! Everyone else had to pay (even veterans and disabled folks), which just goes to show how much the French value their university students. lol again

The actual Picasso paintings I thought were alright, but there was an amazing special collections exhibit where basically, a rich dude had a Parisian apartment with a bunch of bedrooms in his apartment, and commissioned a different artist to paint for each room. Each room was very different, but all were awesome!

After that, I walked over to Librarie du Globe, which had been in my Google Maps “Want to Go” folder since I lived here last year. I thought it was an international bookstore based on the name, but turns out that it was specifically a Russian bookstore, with books in Russian and translations in English and French. I bought two (one in each language I understand) and had a great conversation with the lady working there, who asked me how long I’d been living in Paris.

Lol x3!

Biked over to Joe’s, and grabbed two baguettes along the way. They had ran out of traditional baguettes (some were baking) and only had traditional grain baguettes left, much to the chagrin of the lady who was yelling at the workers there. Seems that she couldn’t comprehend that a bakery could run out of bread, so she resorted to be a Karen.

I dropped off my things at Joe’s and chilled a bit with Joe and Gibs, where we ate one of the baguettes together. We were dipping it into this wine vinegar/sunflower oil concoction that I thought was terrible, and Joe thought was the worst thing ever created.

And just like that, it was already time for evening pints! Gibs took the metro to the pub, and Joe and I hopped on some green vélibs across town.

And that was perhaps the most exhilarating bike ride I’ve ever been on. It was the greatest bike handling the streets of Paris had ever seen — we’re talking swerving, hitting jumps, amazing passing and drafting, passing dozens of bikes and pedestrians. Redbull athletes would honestly be jealous of our skills and I truly wish I had a GoPro to capture the insanity.

It also made me appreciate the scope and power of the human brain. Biking down Boulevard de Saint-Denis with Joe, our minds were instantly processing hundreds, if not thousands, of inputs simultaneously, from the squirrels running across the bike line, hundreds of other cyclists, honks, horns, grandmas not giving a fuck and jaywalking the bike lane with their groceries. It was wild. No wonder full self-driving is so hard to develop for autopilot engineers!

We made it to the pub in the 5th and met up with Joe’s mate, Scottish Joe. His first name is Joe. Not the surname. First name Joe. Surname unknown. Scottish to differentiate from my (English) Joe.

At this point, I’m convinced the default name for British boys is Joe, and when the boy is born, the doctor asks the parents if they want to switch the name from the default of Joe.

And I guess most parents say no.

Scottish Joe was a bucket of laughs, and was quite Scottish.

Naturally, I had to ask about the cows in Scotland, because I had seen many a cool picture of cows overlooking the frigid sea on some sick cliffs. Scottish Joe said that of course there were those cows, and that in fact, there were some right by his house. I asked if he ever wanted to push one off the cliff, he said no, and then was quite perplexed as to the fact that I thought I could push a cow off a cliff.

This devolved into a 10-minute debate about whether a human could physically push a cow off a cliff (with me being much more confident in the strength of a human), after which we talked about his super-hot Miami bikini model classmate and discussed making a glow-in-the-dark dildo of your own penis. I then gave Scottish Joe a Rocktopus.

I wonder if all conversations with Scottish people are this strange.

The only downside about that pub was that the people at the table right next to us were smoking, and the wind was blowing the smoke right into our faces. Europe is wonderful and all, but smoking is quite possibly the worst thing about it. Somewhere along the way to becoming the most developed continent on Earth, they must’ve missed the memo that smoking kills you.

After the pub, we headed off to dinner, with Gibs heading straight there on a Lime and myself and Joe taking green vélibs over to Andrea’s to drop off some things first. We zoomed to Andrea’s, zoomed to the Indian restaurant, and beat Gibs by 15 minutes because she got seriously lost. Classic Gibs!

The Indian food was delicious, and it was like a classic Paree dinner with us all back together. The only downsides were that we were missing Annabel and that the 2-year-old child Anna was babysitting beforehand took a stumble and decided to split his head open. Good job, Diego! No more reading Humpty Dumpty for you.

After dinner, we all metroed back to Joe’s, and me, Joe, and Gibs shared Joe’s tiny bed for the night. Joe’s landlord’s very German friend was in town and got the guest room, so Joe and I had to survive Gibs was snoring the entire night.

What a day!

Friday, April 26th

Early in the morning, Gibs decided to migrate over to the couch because she had no space, even though I was the one who actually didn’t have any space on that very-much-not-a-3-person-bed bed.

We all woke up around 9 but weren’t allowed to leave the room since the guest was awake, and we had to be super quiet. That meant I had to piss in the bidet (again), then I read a bit in bed.

Once the super guest left, we all headed downstairs for breakfast at the boulangerie underneath Joe’s apartment, I hit them with the “Nous voudrions 5 pain au chocolats”, Joe got the coffees, and it was all around an amazing time. We walked by a sex shop (for no particular reason), I saw an Eiffel Tower dildo in the window (nice!), and then I biked on over to the Apple Opéra store to do some work.

Since I hadn’t done any of my CS project the previous two days, it was time for me to lock in and crank that shit out.

Lightning-fast Apple Store WiFi? Check.

Fully charged Macbook Pro? Check.

Pain au chocolat on standby? Check.

Got a solid portion of that CS project done, then biked on over to the Marais to get lunch with Norma Jr. (my former landlord)! The vélib over to the Marais was amazing, we got sandwiches in a super yummy market (that had a terrible ordering and ticketing system, oh my) with lots of food options, then sat on a lovely park bench and had an hour-long catch-up about everything. We caught up on my winter quarter, transitioning back to UCLA, In-n-Out, Brooke, the eclipse, and the box of Krispy Kreme donuts she got for her husband. They apparently just opened one in Paris, so Norma Jr. went across town to get them. There were also amazing ducks in the park pond. I love ducks

After lunch, Norma Jr. and I went our separate ways, and I headed over to another park bench to finish my book on human social interactions, which I highly recommend. Long story short, it describes how the human social world is the most advanced thing known to man and that it’s the major reason why the human brain evolved to be so advanced.

It was while I was sitting on this park bench that I solidified a theory I’d been thinking about the last few days, and even back when I lived in Paris — the quality of the pigeons directly correlates with the quality of the neighborhood that you find that pigeon in.

Consider this pigeon I saw in the Marais. Beautiful feathers, all talons individual and intact, looking regal and fancy af.

Now compare that pigeon with these pigeons I saw near Chateau d’Eau, bathing in literal sewage.

This pigeon I saw in the 11th (a decent neighborhood) looks nice, but engages in hooligan behavior. Specifically, it fully walked into a cafe I was working in and started eating crumbs off the floor. I wasn’t particularly pleased about that, but have to say that I respect it.

After the park bench thinking, I biked over to Emma’s to say hi to her, Gibs, and Ben, worked some more on my CS project, then said hi to Emma again and got coffee with her in her apartment. She was having a Brunswich crisis and not feeling well, I was feeling annoyed about a persistent bug in my project, and overall, we were just complaining in solidarity with one another. I was about 85% finished with my project (it was due at 9 am the next morning Paris time, or midnight PST), so I figured that I’d wake up early and fix the bug I couldn’t seem to solve. Regardless, I had at least something submitted, so the worst-case scenario was getting an 85%, which I could totally live with.

I then headed to Monoprix and proceeded to buy 8 liters of beer for Ben’s 21st birthday party.

That vélib ride to Joe’s, with that precious, precious cargo, was the most careful bike ride I’ve ever taken in my entire life. I felt every bump. Every pothole. And arrived in one piece, with all 32 bottles of beer intact!

What proceeded over the next 8 hours was a 21st birthday celebration to be remembered. So much food and drink, delicious lasagna that was a lot yummier than it was photogenic, so many amazing games of Rage Cage (featuring my red solo cups brought from California), the consumption of 8 bottles of wine and 8 liters of beer for less than 10 people, and a trip to the club that was barely remembered by all. Iona and Skye made an appearance from Bristol, and Joe kinda fought someone in the club for saying something slick to Emma. Joe protects the women in his life, but when it was time for him to remember what the guy said to Emma, no one actually knew what was said.

I dipped around 2 am and made it back to Joe’s in one piece, only crashing on the vélib once. Ione and Skye had left as well and were allegedly going to be back in 20 minutes (Joe’s words), then showed up 90 minutes later after Iona got on a bus with the blind faith that it would take her where she needed to go.

It didn’t, and somehow Skye managed to rescue her and bring her back to Joe’s, and together we figured out how the very strange lift operated to let us into the apartment. Eventually we managed to get in, and I immediately fell asleep at 4 am while Iona and Skye began cooking themselves a meal. Brilliant.

Saturday, April 27th

I woke up to my 7 am alarm for my CS project, was hungover as fuck, thought “No fucking way”, and went straight back to bed.

I was so happy I ended up submitting a version of it the night before. Genius foresight.

I woke up for real at 10:20 to Joe needing to go to work, and never in my entire life had I seen Joe as hungover as he was in that bed. He took a quick shower, headed off to Rose Bakery, and then began the cleanup of the semi-trashed apartment.

Teamwork makes the dreamwork, and we had that apartment in tip-top shape in no time at all. After bringing down the tremendous amount of glassware for all the alcohol we had consumed the night before, I was in awe that we were somehow all alive. I know firsthand that Europeans drink a ton, but these Brits consume alcohol as if their lives depend on it!

I headed down to the nearby boulangerie for breakfast, got delicious warm and pain au chocolats, and ate them all together in the now spotless apartment. I got Iona with the best kind of business joke (“Do you know what the best kind of business is?” —> “Minding your own”), then Gibs called Anna to debrief what had happened the night before (she wasn’t let into the club and yacked on the metro home). Great job, Anna!

The girlies (read: Gibs, Iona, Skye) went off into Paris, and I decided to hibernate indoors for the day, read some of my book, and watch some hilarious YouTube videos. I had been go-go-go the past few days, and just chilling alone in Joe’s apartment was just the break I needed.

Around 5 pm, I headed out myself to Manon’s apartment (what a beautiful vélib ride that was!), and we proceeded to have such a wonderful conversation over the next few hours. We had some delicious tea (served in cups that were so big, there were really bowls with handles), yummy jam, and shared presents with each other. We talked about our upcoming travel plans and things that we felt were holding us back in our lives (read: anchors). Deep

Around dinnertime, I biked over to Bouillon Republique to meet up with gang, where the line was so long that we all were starting to lose the will to live entirely. I called Mama and Emily, and when we finally got the food, it was the greatest moment ever. Delicious food, wonderful company, and a great conversation with Ben on the walk back home.

It seems that this recovery day was quite long and exhausting. lol!

Sunday, April 28th

Woke up at 10, got ready, and then we (Joe, Gibs, Iona, and Skye) were all off to the boulangerie again for breakfast. Along the way, we saw this tiny boy holding a croissant with two hands, eating it like a sandwich. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen!

And for some reason, while we were sitting outside, watching the Parisians go about their day, there were so many children pushing strollers with varying degrees of success, which generated a tremendous amount of chuckles among our group. The pigeons also looked terrible, completely proving my theory about the pigeon quality being correlated to neighborhood quality that I mentioned earlier.

After breakfast, I biked over to east Paris to play basketball with Manon and some of her friends (her basketball chap Daniel + Viere and Emily), and it was such a great time hooping and shooting around. Viere is heading to UCLA next year for his year exchange, and we might even be roommates at the co-op next year! He’ll fit right in with all the hoopers that play all the time in Wooden.

I then vélibed over to the Louvre for lunch with Emma, Anna, Gibs, and Ben. I showed up late and so missed the lunch, but not the chit-chat. I got some yummy triangular pyramid thingies for lunch instead, which were super tasty. Vélibed home, showered, and quickly packed up my few things to leave back home the next day.

I vélibed back over the Seine to meet up with the group, who was walking along the river on a truly gorgeous day. We crossed the Seine back to the Champs, took some pictures on the Champs, and metroed home to eat some delicious baguettes (with me and Ben holding hands on the metro pole in a very crowded train car).

The Paree group and I ate our yummy baguettes with the delicious wine Eliana’s family gifted me, then it was time to say bye to Iona and Skye (wow, that rhymed!), who were flying back home to Bristol, and Gibbles, who was training to Amsterdam to see her sister.

Ben, Emma, Joe, and I continued the fun by heading to the movies to watch Challengers, which quite possibly was the greatest decision of this entire trip.

First of all, the movie’s plot was wonderful, and I loved the timeline flashbacks throughout the film. Second, Zendaya is so hot. Wow. She makes me want to play tennis.

After the movie, it was bye to Ben and Emma for this trip :(, then Joe and I went on a grand tour of Paris on the vélibs, stopping by the Arc du Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, down along the Seine, and then Invalides, where we swapped our bikes to perfect blues. Honestly, it was just so wonderful to be with Joe for the last night. :)

Went to bed for the last time in Paris this trip, what an amazing time it was to be here :)

Monday 2/29/2024

I woke up for the last time in Paris this trip, said good morning and then goodbye to Joe, and just like that, it was time to go home!

I walked to the Gare du Nord train station to take in Paris one last time, and honestly, it was just so lovely to see Paris waking up in the early morning hours. I got 9 pain au chocolats and a butter croissant from the best boulangerie in Paris (according to Luis on YouTube), and had a smooth ride to Paris CDG airport, where an accordion player made an impromptu conference mid-ride.

The airport check-in was smooth, and the highlight of the entire experience was when the border security agent told us that everyone could go through the EU line, even this American lady behind who got waved through.

“I’m Canadian!”, she angrily responded.

“Canadienne, that’s fine, too,” smoothly responded the border agent.

Canadians are usually super nice and friendly, but let me tell you, this Canadian lady was very much not having it! She was fuming.

At the boarding gate to Dublin (where I had a three-hour layover to LAX), the highlight was a Russian-speaking family of a mom, her daughter, and her son. The children were misbehaving, and the mom was saying such hilarious phrases in response that it was truly a struggle not to start laughing. My favorites:

Почему вы меня позорите?! Why are you embarrassing me?
Я овставлю тебя здесь! I’ll leave you here!
Я тебя не засканирувую! I won’t scan you in! Basically, she was gonna leave her kids at the boarding gate.
Я пойду! I’ll leave! Basically, she’d just leave her kids in the line to fend for themselves.
Ну хоть постои спокойно. Please just stand still.

The crazy thing is, I’ve definitely heard some similar phrases when I was misbehaving in lines when I was a kid. lol

The flight to Dublin was smooth, and I was just chuckling at the Irish accents the entire time. I chilled in the Dublin airport lounge for a few hours, ate a nice potato soup (it seems the famine has ended), and went through a pre-customs check, where the customs officer asked if I had any merchandise over $800 to declare.

I was honestly flattered that he thought I had that kind of money, and wasn’t sure he was talking to me at first.

The flight to LA was smooth, and I was thanked “a million” by the Irish flight attendants. And so my wonderful week-long trip to Paris ends!

Throughout my entire life, I have saved money for the future, waiting to spend it in some future day. Through high school, it was to save for college. Now, it seemed I was saving for after graduation.

Joe shifted that perspective back when I lived in Paris. Saving money is important. Yet spending it is important, too. There is tremendous value in having a reserve of money for a rainy day. But the true value in money is in spending it, not in hoarding it.

This Paris trip cost around $1000 after all is said and done. Flight tickets, souvenirs, food, and too many pain au chocolats to count.

I cannot imagine a better to spend that money than to visit my friends abroad. Traveling to visit friends reminds you that adventure exists and can be found wherever. But most importantly, it reminds you that adventure will not come if we wait for some other person to come along or for some other “better” time. There is never a perfect time to go. There is always a reason to stay, to say no.

Yet we must go nonetheless. It is our duty, and our privilege.

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